


Lights Out

by indicognito



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, and a little bit of sexual tension, some language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-22 02:16:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indicognito/pseuds/indicognito
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being snowed in might seem romantic to your average person, but their relationship had always been a little more... complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lights Out

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Tasertricks Winter Exchange on Tumblr. The prompt given to me by Tumblr user writingsoul was 'snowed in without power.' Happy reading!

On a theoretical level it made sense that Jane had decided to stay in town instead of driving back out to the cabin in the middle of a blizzard. After all, the drifts were already piling up against the door, and Darcy seriously doubted she could leave the building, let alone expect Jane to drive the fifteen miles through the woods without getting buried. The twist was that Thor was with her, and there was no way that a few flurries – okay, fine, a full-blown snowstorm – would stop a _god_ from rocketing his way from Point A to Point B using his handy-dandy hammer. Darcy supposed that the whole powering-through-the-air thing might feel a bit chilly to a mortal like Jane, but the journey would probably be over so quickly that it wouldn’t matter.

After assessing the facts, Darcy did what any good assistant to a physicist would do: she formulated a hypothesis. The hypothesis was that Jane was taking advantage of crappy driving conditions to snag a hotel room and have a little private time.

Darcy couldn’t exactly prove or disprove her guess, but it was a pretty solid hunch helped by the fact that she unfortunately had first-hand (or neighbouring bedroom) knowledge that a hot night with the God of Thunder was just as loud as his title implied. There had been many a time that she had cursed the architects of apartments for making the walls so damned thin. Still, she couldn’t really hold it against Jane for getting some… and all in all, Darcy felt she had to be glad that Jane had decided to get her rocks off in town instead of in the tiny cabin.

And, of course, it left Darcy alone with their other guest.

“Well, shit,” she murmured at the phone she had just hung up – or rather, that the storm had hung up for her. Rounding on Loki, who was regarding her with bored curiosity because of the outburst, she couldn’t repress a grimace at the thought of just how pleasant he was going to be without Thor to keep him semi-civil.

“Jane says they’ve decided not to drive back out because of the storm,” Darcy said, thumbing at the window as though either of them needed a reminder of the blizzard that hadn’t even reached its peak. In any other situation, she might have felt a little antsy about being stranded in a little cabin in the woods, but she had a feeling that most horror stories didn’t take place with a god on the good guys’ team. Assuming, of course, that Loki was on their team and wouldn’t just hightail it to save himself, but Darcy was counting on his ass getting kicked by Thor if he even tried it.

Loki, of course, was no more fooled than she had been. “The mightiest blizzard would not be enough to stop my brother from travelling where he feels he must go – unless he is concerned for the Foster woman, but surely he would not let her come to harm.”

“Hey,” Darcy snapped in response to his attitude. “I told you, you either call her Jane or – if you really need to be all prissy and formal – _Miss Foster_.” The title sounded weird on Darcy’s tongue, but she couldn’t really imagine Loki being so familiar with Jane that he would call her by her first name, so it would have to do. “And stop and think about why they might want to stay in town.”

Loki’s brow creased, but it was more in an oh-well-that’s-repulsive sort of way, not confusion. “So my brother is catering to his base needs again. Perhaps I should consider myself fortunate that he has chosen to do so out of earshot.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Darcy said, moving over to the couch and slinging herself down to stare at the television. The already-fuzzy news channel that she had been half-watching had turned into outright static at some point during the phone call, so she grabbed the remote and turned it off. And to think she had forgotten to bring a book.

Lolling her head back over the armrest so that she could stare upside-down at Loki, who was sitting at the kitchen table and had returned to staring blankly out the window, Darcy cleared her throat. “So,” she said, “what do you want to do?”

Since his whole anti-social act had been in play ever since they had arrived, Darcy knew she was testing iffy waters. When asked why Loki was being dragged along on their little trip, Thor had explained that he wanted Loki to try socialising for a change. Privately Darcy believed that Thor didn’t want his asshat brother out of his sight for more than a few hours, and she couldn’t really blame him. Supposedly Loki had some kind of lock on his powers that kept him from performing any malicious hocus-pocus, but the guy was fit enough. He could probably best Darcy in a scrap and book it out of there on his mile-long legs in no time. She knew him better than to expect that, though.

“Wait until they return so that you may speak with them rather than pester me,” Loki said in a clipped tone, not even bothering to look at her. Still, Darcy didn’t miss the faint upturn at the corner of his lips, the sneaky bastard.

“Keeping it friendly, as per usual.” From her vantage point, he looked even more angular than usual. It was a shame he was such a jerk; any guy with cheekbones and a jaw like that would get any girl in a heartbeat if he could even pretend to be loving. But no, Loki had to fit the Hot Guys Are Bastards trope, and Darcy admitted that she couldn’t really expect much more from the God of Lies and Mischief and General Fuckery. She didn’t _mind_ , of course, and in any case it kept competitors off her tail.

He was sneering – Darcy wasn’t sure how often she actually saw people _sneer_ , but it was so exaggerated that she didn’t believe it anyway. “Oh?” Loki said. “I was unaware that being friendly was required for my unwilling participation in this venture.”

“Lighten up, Negative Nancy. I heard two too many ‘un’ words in there.” She flipped over so that she was staring at him the right way up. “Hey, we’re stuck together for tonight, overnight, and however long it takes them to clear out the road slash however long it takes for Thor and Jane to finish up their little no-pants party. And if I go that many hours without social interaction, then I forget how to speak English. There might still be a few Spanish words left behind afterward, but trust me, hearing me fumble through the remnants of my high school Intro to Spanish class is way worse than this.”

Darcy didn’t need Loki to say anything; she could read his expression near-perfectly. It was something along the lines of him being totally willing to shut her up altogether, but apparently he was better at holding his tongue than she was. He did finally look at her, though, and she got roughly five seconds of staring at his stupidly attractive face before everything went black.

Not that Loki had finally snapped and went all ninja-skills on her – the power had gone out, as Darcy had been half-expecting it would at some point. Luckily she had thought to go on the hunt for candles when the storm had begun. She still couldn’t believe that they had all been so stupid as to forget to bring flashlights or lanterns or something, but at least she had found the candles stashed away in one of the cabinets. They were still lying out on the countertop along with a half-empty pack of matches. It was kind of cool, really, in an old-timey, rustic sort of way.

“Awesome,” Darcy said as her eyes slowly adjusted to the dimness. When she felt that she could probably make her way into the kitchenette without blindly tripping and concussing herself on a stray piece of furniture, she got up and moved toward the candles.

But of course it couldn’t be _that_ easy. Despite the fact that her night vision was half-decent by now, her foot still caught the edge of one of the chairs. The ensuing fall almost felt like one of those shameful slow-motion moments that would see her rescued at the last minute by a surprisingly compassionate god… but then her knees connected painfully with the wooden floor and Loki was still seated, not having budged an inch.

The asshole was laughing though, even if it was some sort of half-heartedly muffled chuckle at her tragedy. “My, your senses are pitiable, are they not? You ought to work on that.”

“And _you_ ought to take a long walk off a short pier,” Darcy retorted, wincing as she got to her feet. Kicking the offending chair out of her way, she made it to the counter in one piece and grabbed the booklet of matches. She struck one and lit a tea light, setting it on the table behind her and shooting a glare at Loki just for good measure. Turning around to light the rest of the candles, she said, “So are you gonna be this nice all night long? Because the power outage already has me in a bad mood, though that’s mostly because furniture becomes kind of evil in the dark.”

“I don’t think the furniture is to blame,” Loki replied. “And as I have no obligation to be ‘nice’ then I shall behave as I see fit. However, I find my own mood has improved considerably within the past few minutes.”

Darcy didn’t know whether to throw a tea light at his face or be happy that he finally sounded like he was having fun, even if it was at her expense.

“Yeah, well, if you’re going to be a douche canoe, then I’m taking my candles and holing up in my bedroom.” She realised a second later that this wasn’t really a threat since he probably wouldn’t care if she made herself scarce. “Never mind, scratch that. If you’re going to be a douche canoe, I’m going to stay here and bug you until you acknowledge that talking to people isn’t that bad. It’s actually kind of fun if you give it a try – more fun than staring at a wall, anyway.”

“I doubt that,” Loki said idly, and when Darcy went to set a few more candles around the room, she caught the look of quiet amusement on his face. The half-smile made him look about two hundred percent more attractive than he was when he sported his typical glare, and Darcy was caught between forgiving him and getting even more irritated because of this fact.

Still, she went back to the counter to get the last two tea lights without letting her emotions swing in either direction. “Yeah, yeah, Mr I-Hate-Everyone-Except-Darcy-When-She-Buys-Me-Haagen-Dazs, and don’t even deny it because I swear to… I dunno, Odin or whatever… that I’ve never seen a person put away ice cream so fast without getting a brain freeze.”

Loki knew that Darcy knew exactly why this was the case, but she was smart enough not to crack jokes about it. If she did, she’d either end up tossed out the window or frozen into her own personal ice block.

“Hate is such a strong word,” Loki said, and Darcy nearly burnt herself on a candle when she jumped as a response to the voice directly behind her. Spinning around, she confirmed that Loki had just ghosted himself over and was now trapping her in place with his hands on the counter to either side of her.

“Don’t _do_ that – I almost dropped this stupid thing on myself,” Darcy said with a frown, holding the candle up in front of his noise for emphasis.

Loki chuckled again, moving one hand to take the tea light from her. “I wouldn’t allow you to be burned,” he said. “Few know that I am also –” with a twitch of his wrist, the tiny flame erupted into a blinding flare that made Darcy scream in shock “–the God of Fire.”

Testing her hair for singe damage, Darcy noticed that the flash fire hadn’t actually been hot at all, and the candle flame had returned to being small and innocuous. Her heart was still racing, though, and after grabbing the candle and setting it down on the counter, she shoved Loki in the chest. “Asshole,” she grumbled, though she didn’t exactly remove her hands from his shirt after pushing him. “You’re in a mood tonight.”

“I thought you enjoyed my _moods_ ,” Loki said with a grin, not even giving her the courtesy of leaning in or touching her or anything. What a jerk.

“Correction: I said I didn’t mind them,” Darcy replied. Her fingers, which were now exploring the curves of muscle through the obnoxiously thin material of his top, did a lot to belie her annoyed tone. But just as she knew him better than to expect him to run off in the middle of the storm, he knew her better than to think she was ever _really_ mad at him. No matter how stupidly frustrating he could be.

“Nevertheless…” Loki’s voice was lofty, and it made Darcy even more irked/tempted to rip his shirt off. “I do believe we are wasting precious time alone in the absence of my over-imposing brother.”

“Who’s the one ‘catering to his base needs’ now?”

“Hush. I am more refined than that.”

“You didn’t seem so refined last Saturday. Trust me, I’ve never slept with a guy who –”

“Hush,” Loki repeated, a little bit more grumpily this time. “Now, unless you have a better idea of how to spend an evening without inane television to occupy your attention, then I would suggest you stop with the smart tongue.”

Giving him another tiny shove, Darcy stuck her tongue out at him. “You know you love it. And for the record, this totally doesn’t count as socialising but I’m letting it slide – just this one time. But fine, let me go and I’ll spare you the wit for… let’s say, however long it takes to reach the bedroom.”

He rolled his eyes and didn’t lift his arms. “Perhaps staying here is preferable, then. It will keep you quiet and it will spare you the pain and embarrassment of stumbling over the furniture on the way.”

“Oh, low blow,” she said. “So not cool. But y’know, even though I’d be lying if I said that getting it on in the kitchen isn’t kind of hot as hell, I don’t think the lovebirds would appreciate the thought of us mussing up a shared space, no matter how many times they’ve profaned our poor couch… the hypocrites.”

“Please do not remind me.” Loki’s nose wrinkled in distaste, and honestly it was beyond adorable, even if ‘adorable’ was a word that Loki would likely disown Darcy for using in relation to him. “All right, fine.” He dropped his arms and stepped back, gesturing for her to lead the way. “But take a candle, would you. If you knock yourself unconscious on a wayward shelf, I’ll not bother to aid you.”

Darcy spread her hands wide and announced, “I can see the headlines now: ‘Young college student found dead in cabin by friends; asshat god nowhere to be found.’” But she grabbed two of the tea lights and started toward the bedroom. “You sure know how to woo a girl.”

“Gripe all you wish, but do not deny that it works.”

And it was true. Other people might have looked at the serendipitous alone time and intimate cabin and snowstorm and power outage and candles and all that jazz as some sort of ideal romantic scenario, but really, the reality was anything but that… mostly because Loki was involved.

But hell if Darcy would’ve traded it for anything in all the Nine Realms.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, loves. Hope you enjoyed~ Cheers!


End file.
